FAA shutdown fix expected this week, Obama says

President Barack Obama says his “expectation” is that a partial shutdown at the Federal Aviation Administration will be resolved this week.

The crisis at the FAA, which started July 23, has put 75,000 people out of work, stalled construction projects across the country and has forced safety inspectors to cover their own travel expenses while working without pay.

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Democrats: GOP 'hostage takers'

POLITICO 44

Congress left town for its August recess Tuesday without passing temporary financing for the agency, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other top Democrats are pushing House Speaker John Boehner to pass a temporary clean measure by unanimous consent, an option because both chambers are in a “pro forma” session.

“I again say, Speaker Boehner, stop this nonsense,” Reid said.

Senate Democrats blocked a short-term FAA bill already passed by the House because it includes a GOP provision cutting subsidies for rural airports. And a long-term House bill has been tied up over a labor dispute.

Republicans are pointing to remarks Reid made to reporters Tuesday in which he was open to accepting the House version if Boehner didn’t act on a clean bill.

“The only reason 80,000 jobs are at stake is that Senate Democratic leaders chose to play politics rather than keep their word and pass the House bill,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. “That’s indefensible, and they should end this crisis immediately.”

Top congressional Democrats on Wednesday ramped up the rhetoric in the standoff over funding, referring to Republicans as “hostage takers” no fewer than a dozen times and casting blame on them for the crisis.

“This is a made-up crisis. This is government by hostage taking,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said at a news conference.

In a heated exchange with reporters, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads policy and messaging for Senate Democrats, continued the hostage metaphor.

“The issue is not essential air service, it’s not even a labor issue. It’s the issue of hostage taking,” he said. “It’s as if someone puts a gun to your head and says, ‘Give me your money,’ and then you say, ‘Why won’t you give them your money?’”

Obama has promised to veto the bill if it passes with Title IX unamended.

The decision to overturn established policy occuring in the executive branch, rather than the legislative is another move Obama wants.

Last year, the pro-union appointees on the National Mediation Board (the agency that governs labor relations for airlines and railroads under the Railway Labor Act), changed the 75-year old union election process for airline (and railroad) employees.

This means that, in a voting class like the one at AirTran, even though only 994 out of 2,900 employees voted for unionization, because 36% of the voters did not vote at all, all 2,900 AirTrans employees are now unionized.

Union bosses, most notably the Communication Workers of America (The MEDIA) which is the parent union of the Association of Flight Attendants, as well as represents USAirways passenger service agents are desperately trying to push this act.

While Obama says he wants a "clean bill"....What he means is that he wants a UNION bill.

It's a little difficult to figure out what is going on from this story. What effect would the proposed cuts to rural airports have on those airports? Would that useless, expensive Murtha airport be affected? I hope so.

What is the nature of the "labor dispute?" I'm just guessing it has something to do with giving some new perk to unions. But then, I'm just guessing. You could have squeezed a sentence or two into the story so people wouldn't need to guess.

It is surreal to see Democrats acting like crack addicts railing like madmen, refusing to reduce spending by so much as a penny. Trying to reduce spewnding is now called "hostage taking." Let them scream; keep cutting away at all of the waste and nonsensical spending. $175 million dollars for never used airports. Get rid of it.

It is surreal to see Democrats acting like crack addicts railing like madmen, refusing to reduce spending by so much as a penny. Trying to reduce spewnding is now called "hostage taking." Let them scream; keep cutting away at all of the waste and nonsensical spending. $175 million dollars for never used airports. Get rid of it.

Dems seemed "licked" into this story-line that Republicans are "hostage takers" or are outright "terrorists". They can't seem to leave this label alone. They keep falling back on this line time after time. It may even replace their default slur of Republicans being "racist" (although this would be a hard case to make on this FAA issue).

The truth of the matter is that this comes down to a simple budget issue. The Dem argument that this is about unionization is a cover-story. It is used to distract the public and an attempt to fire up their base to pressure legislators as they did in WI and in other states. It is immaterial to the central argument.

Reid has a small rural airport that he wants to protect. And he is getting support from Dems to continue subsidizing airfares at these smaller rural airports with up to $3,000 per ticket. And there are a dozen or so other airports around the nation in a similar situation.

We need to end subsidies. We need to stop spending taxpayer dollars to benefit people who do not need to be wards of the state. Are these "rich" air travelers? We don't know. But the likely aren't "poor". So why should taxpayers be subsidizing air travel?

The supposed "union organizing" is on another bill entirely. Let that legislation be decided on its own merits. Let's stop with subsidizing big corporations as we are doing with this ticket underwriting on this piece of legislation.

Unfortunately for the Marxist-hijacked Democratic Party, they can't prove ONE INSTANCE of actual "hostage taking" or "terrorism" by the Republicans, even the Tea Party faction. Conversely, the Republican Party can actually point to multiple examples of the Urkel Administration employing Socialism (COMMUNISM-lite) in their policies. The 2012 elections will come down to one, basic question for the electorate: do you want a form of Communism to be your type of government??................For most AMERICANS, the answer is a very strong "NO"!!......

Senate Democrats put pork ahead of Social Security last week when they lined up unanimously to kill legislation that would have guaranteed that seniors would receive Social Security payments in full and on time in the event the debt ceiling is not raised and the government is precluded from borrowing more money.

In a 52-47 party-line vote, Democrats tabled an amendment (S.A. 113) to the Patent Reform Act(S. 23) that would have required the government to “prioritize all obligations on the debt held by the public in the event that the debt limit is reached, providing also that the government give equal priority to payment of Social Security benefits.”

“Unfortunately, Republicans continue to practice the politics of confrontation and hostage taking

TeamPOLITICO: Aug. 3, 2011 - 2:03 PM EST

Chuck Schumer, who heads policy and messaging for Senate Democrats, continued the hostage metaphor.

“The issue is not essential air service, it’s not even a labor issue. It’s the issue of hostage taking,” he said. “It’s as if someone puts a gun to your head and says, ‘Give me your money,’ and then you say, ‘Why won’t you give them your money?’”

Now the Democrats have run smack dab into the brick wall of The People of The United States of America who are finally saying NO to these tax and spend thieves and incompetents in the Pigressive party.

Here we go again, the old fearmongering,scare the bejeebers out of everyone and maybe we can get away with it again routine. Hey,by the way,wasn't the dems who were so adamant about us all being civil? Oh ,i'm sorry, that only applies to conservatives.Chicken little B.O. strikes again!

So, because the Democrats can't pass a budget, because they're so busy playing politics with raising the debt ceiling, because Chuck Schumer et al, are busy making sure their messaging is right and not passing legislation, they blame the Republicans.

I can see new leadership coming, in the Senate, in 2012 because the leadership, if you want to call it that, they have now, is woefully lacking. They are more worried about the coming election than doing what's right for the country and they're losing $200 million in revenue a week because of their stupidity and, what makes it worse, the media isn't even calling them on it.

How long ago was that the Republicans dealt with it?????

The Dog ate my homework, it's Bush's fault, and it's the Republicans playing politics, is all getting old Chuckie. You need to come up with a lot better messaging than that. In fact, if you guys did your jobs, you wouldn't have to worry about messaging.

New York Sen. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads policy and messaging for Senate Democrats, continued the hostage metaphor.

“The issue is not essential air service, it’s not even a labor issue. It’s the issue of hostage taking,” he said. “It’s as if someone puts a gun to your head and says, ‘Give me your money,’ and then you say, ‘Why won’t you give them your money?

..............keep America constantly hostage and hold a gun to every struggling American taxpayer, family and business each and every April during the The Democrat Pigressive Pig Terrorist Blackmailing Hostage Takers annual shakedown of America for LOOT that the Pigressive Pigs steal for their crackhead constituants.